[SunGodPortal]

Since this is not yet an active project I wasn't sure where to put it. BUT, while I am not new to hacking, I am new to translation hacking, so I figured the Newcomer's Board might be the best place for this.

I currently have a few projects going but once I'm done with that stuff (or at least most of it) I'd like to attempt some translation work. There are three Super Famicom games I'd like to see translated into english (well, there are many actually, but these not as demanding as an RPG for example) but right now I haven't decided on which one. So I thought I might come here and mention the three I have in mind to A) inquire as to whether someone else is actively working on these games and B) to see which one the community might be most interested in.

Here are three games I'm currently looking at:

Power Soukoban



Lode Runner Twin


Melfand Stories


Power Soukoban is a puzzle game about a little demon who has to plug up a bunch of holes. Lode Runner Twin is usually listed as a puzzle game but I'd consider it to be more of an arcade-style game (if that means anything to anyone else). Melfand Stories is a side-scrolling beat 'em up with a fantasy theme. All three games are super cute and super fun.

Of course I am capable of making my own decisions, but I'm curious as to which game the commmunity would most like to see translated into english.

[Isao Kronos]

just do whichever one you want to see in english the most


failing that, whichever one isn't the biggest wank to hack

[Zynk]

Would you consider translating this? *looks intently at OP's profile pic*

[SunGodPortal]

Would you consider translating this? *looks intently at OP's profile pic*

I'd like to, but RPGs tend to have a lot of text. Something like that probably wouldn't be good for a first translation project.

just do whichever one you want to see in english the most


failing that, whichever one isn't the biggest wank to hack

I'd most like to see one of those RPG-ish board games in english but these seem like they would be much simpler (from a content standpoint). I haven't really made my mind up so i figured I would mention a few games I was considering and see what the people around here thought. I'd hate to go through so much work only to find that no one cares about the game I've selected.

[dACE]

My vote is for Melfand Stories!

The gameplay remind me of Golden Axe - how can you go wrong with a side-scrolling beat-em up?

/dACE

[Bahamut ZERO]

Gotta agree with dACE - Melfind Stories would be great to see in English. I think I remember trying to play that game before, actually.. doesn't it start out with your character having to beat the crap out of a giant squid on a boat or something? Maybe my mind's mixing this game with some obscure area from the game Shining Souls 2, but in anycase, looks like a good choice!

[SunGodPortal]

My vote is for Melfand Stories!

The gameplay remind me of Golden Axe - how can you go wrong with a side-scrolling beat-em up?

/dACE

True. True. I'm actually surprised that this one hasn't been translated already (especially considering some of the stinkers that have). Of course, I didn't know about it until I downloaded pretty much every Japanese SNES ROM and then went through and just started testing out games at random.

Gotta agree with dACE - Melfind Stories would be great to see in English. I think I remember trying to play that game before, actually.. doesn't it start out with your character having to beat the crap out of a giant squid on a boat or something? Maybe my mind's mixing this game with some obscure area from the game Shining Souls 2, but in anycase, looks like a good choice!

Yeah, the squid is the boss of the first level. One of the things I like about this game is that you get to choose different level sets depending on which difficulty level you'd prefer. And of course there's some bonus levels that are kinda like mini-games. Fun stuff.

[Grimoire LD]

True. True. I'm actually surprised that this one hasn't been translated already (especially considering some of the stinkers that have). Of course, I didn't know about it until I downloaded pretty much every Japanese SNES ROM and then went through and just started testing out games at random.

Yeah, the squid is the boss of the first level. One of the things I like about this game is that you get to choose different level sets depending on which difficulty level you'd prefer. And of course there's some bonus levels that are kinda like mini-games. Fun stuff.

Melfand Stories looks the most fun out of those three and I've never seen a chibi beat-em-up before so it sounds rather neat.

[SunGodPortal]

Melfand Stories looks the most fun out of those three and I've never seen a chibi beat-em-up before so it sounds rather neat.

I've just been informed that someone else is already pretty deep into this one. Sounded like they were almost finished but I'm not sure if I was supposed to say that or not. I'm not disappointed though. I can't wait to play this in english.

After further thought I think I'm going to pass on Lode Runner Twin. I don't know if I'll choose Power Soukoban just yet though. There are also a few of those RPG board games that I'm now going to look in to. I'll post about that once I can weed some of them out. It pains me that none of these have been translated yet. I know Shounin yo, Taishi o Dake!! looks fun:



I'll be glad when AG gets done with SNES Sugoro Quest. The NES SQ is fun but I don't recall it having a multiplayer function.

Also, since ZO mentioned it (that Akazukin ChaCha RPG), does anyone know what happened to the translation attempt from this ancient post?

http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=311.0

Or even if someone else took up the task of translating this one...? I said I didn't want to start with an RPG but I can't help but to wonder about this one. It looks fun and given the source material I'm sure it's pretty goofy (and we need more "silly" RPGs).

[Gideon Zhi]

Also, since ZO mentioned it (that Akazukin ChaCha RPG), does anyone know what happened to the translation attempt from this ancient post?

http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=311.0

Or even if someone else took up the task of translating this one...? I said I didn't want to start with an RPG but I can't help but to wonder about this one. It looks fun and given the source material I'm sure it's pretty goofy (and we need more "silly" RPGs).

This is not one I've looked into but from past efforts I understand it's not very complicated. Are you looking to translate text, do the technical work, or a bit of both? If it's the former, I might consider lending a hand if it seems like a simple enough project.

[SunGodPortal]

This is not one I've looked into but from past efforts I understand it's not very complicated. Are you looking to translate text, do the technical work, or a bit of both? If it's the former, I might consider lending a hand if it seems like a simple enough project.

I figured I'd do a little bit of both. Maybe all if I can handle it (though I'm sure I'll need plenty of help along the way). I must admit that my knowledge of Japanese is pretty basic and so are my hacking skills. I don't intend to let that stop me though. I doubt any of the games on this site were translated by anyone who knew what they were doing 100% right off the bat. But from both sides I think I have a good enough base to build on and finally feel safe venturing into this territory.

I also feel I should mention that until I wrap up some unfinished business (namely Bruce Campbell vs Ganon 2.0) all I can really do for this project is study. Right now I'm estimating that I can start laying some ground work by the end of this month or the beginning of next month depending on how carried away I get. I guess one of the good things about ACC is that part of the studying would be watching anime and reading manga again.

I won't turn down your help but I just wanted to be up front about my very "entry level" skill set.

EDIT: After looking through the ROM for the font(s) it looks like the main font is compressed. That will def be a major hang up. I wouldn't even know where to begin with that. I have zero experience with that sort of thing. The menu font (or at least I think that's what it is) seems to be fine though.

[Chpexo]

.

[Avster]

If you want the help, count me in for creating your Latin fonts and localized graphics, and in any case let me know if you run into blockers when making the table files.

[SunGodPortal]

Ah. So the second set of fonts was not compressed. I just forgot about the other graphics mode so everything looked garbled. LOL How silly of me. Thanks for the screenshot.

Anyway, I'm still debating this. I'd love to work on Akazukin Cha Cha but I'm still not sure if an RPG is the best choice for a first project of this sort. The main thing holding me back on this one is that it would take so much longer than a non-RPG type due to the massive amount of text. I'm not saying I won't but I def want to think this over. But once I pick a game, that's it and I'm not going to work on more than one translation at a time. I see too many others doing this and I can't help but think of how much more of a nightmare that must be. But then again in some cases there are a few people working together and having to wait on each other. So...

On a related note, last night I played through the game for an hour or so and translated what I could along the way. It was pretty funny. I hadn't tried to play this game since before I started learning Japanese so it was cool to not be totally lost from the start.

If you want the help, count me in for creating your Latin fonts and localized graphics, and in any case let me know if you run into blockers when making the table files.

Oh I'm sure I'll need help with the table file. LOL I think the only time I made one before it was when I was messing around with an NES game years ago. That was much simpler than what I'm looking at here.
July 13, 2015, 05:45:40 pm - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)

Anybody know what's up with the font here? It looks like it's crooked and if I scoll down a little bit it displays differerntly but is also crooked. I'm using YY-CHR and have tried to get these to display better in two diff version of this program. Had no luck with Tile Molester because I had no idea which codec fit the bill and tried a good number of them. If not resolved, this could become a big problem when trying to identify characters.

[Gideon Zhi]

Looks like it uses a nonstandard height, probably 14 or 15 pixels. I don't think yy-chr can handle that. crystaltile2 probably can, but holy christ that thing's a pain in the ass to use.

[SunGodPortal]

Looks like it uses a nonstandard height, probably 14 or 15 pixels. I don't think yy-chr can handle that. crystaltile2 probably can, but holy christ that thing's a pain in the ass to use.

Ah. That makes sense. I remember thinking that it looked like some were overlapping but I guess that's just because they didn't adhere to the typical 8x8, 8x16 or 16x16 boundaries that I was expecting. I've tried Crystal Tile 2 but have yet to get these tiles to look even as good as they did above. You're right, that thing is a pain in the ass. LOL

Suggestions anyone?

**see update below**

Also: Thanks to everyone who has offered their assistance here. It looks like I'm done flip flopping. Akazukin Cha Cha it is. Until I get done with some Zelda 3 hacking and get a few tracks done for chillyfeez there's only so much I'm going to do for this, but I am going to do at least some more casual tasks in the meantime. My main concern right now is finding a way to properly display the bulk of the fonts, which appear to be in a slightly unorthodox format.

I'm curious and need an expert's opinion here... Would it be feasible to approach this project in a way that does not completely cannibalize the game's existing text or fonts? What I mean is, most of the time when I see an unfinished translation you have some translated text and then a shit-ton of gibberish. If it isn't too ridiculous, while this project is going on I'd like to add new text and fonts to the game and still have whatever original text has not yet been altered to not be totally butchered so I don't have a few sentences and then a bunch of "GnfjD JDInfhk9 jfdnd!?!" everywhere. Basically, is that more trouble than it's worth or just a matter of good organization?

When I skimmed through the game in a hex editor it looked like there was plenty of empty space, but just for the sake of organization I kinda think I'd rather just expand the ROM and then tack the new stuff on to the end where applicable. Any reason that might be a bad idea?

UPDATE: I finally figured out Crystal Tile's interface and was then able to determine that the main set of fonts is actually 16x14. They just had to be rebels I guess.

[Synnae]

OMG. I love cute games! I'm really looking forward to this!

I was wondering why the Akazukin Cha Cha RPG isn't translated yet. I thought nobody would ever be interested in translating it. But I'm glad you showed up and is willing to do the task. ^^ Best of luck!

[SunGodPortal]

OMG. I love cute games! I'm really looking forward to this!

I was wondering why the Akazukin Cha Cha RPG isn't translated yet. I thought nobody would ever be interested in translating it. But I'm glad you showed up and is willing to do the task. ^^ Best of luck!

Thanks for the kind words. I too love cute games. I was considering a number of games and you may have noticed from the screenshots at the top that ALL of them are in fact cute.

I can't tell you how many times I looked through the translations here and hoped to see ACC, but never did. This is going to be my first translation project so it will probably be slow and uneasy, but also exciting and rewarding. I'm ready for a good challenge.

Question: Would anyone here know a good way to map a chart of all of the kanji in this game? Normally if I wanted to do something like this I might just open the ROM up in YY-CHR, go to the appropriate spot and then make a screen shot, but in this case that won't be possible (or at least easy). Because of the odd font size (16x14) it won't display properly in YY-CHR and while I can get it to display properly in Crystal Tile I can't seem to find a way to get it to display more than a few tiles at a time.

[Synnae]

Thanks for the kind words. I too love cute games. I was considering a number of games and you may have noticed from the screenshots at the top that ALL of them are in fact cute.

Yuppers, I noticed those as well they're also really cute and I don't think I was aware of them before. I also enjoy puzzle/arcade style games so it'd be really great to see those translated as well. ^^ This world needs more cutesy. XD

I can't tell you how many times I looked through the translations here and hoped to see ACC, but never did. This is going to be my first translation project so it will probably be slow and uneasy, but also exciting and rewarding. I'm ready for a good challenge.

It will definitely be rewarding. And since it will be your first project, I'm sure it will hold a special place in your heart after you finish it. Again, I'll be cheering for you! It's all I can do since I have no experience at all in translating/romhacking... ^^;

[mz]

I can get it to display properly in Crystal Tile I can't seem to find a way to get it to display more than a few tiles at a time.

Hold shift and then press down or right.